Miss Maddie is a Beehive!

Miss Maddie turned 12 last fall -- and when a girl turns 12 in our church, she gets moved up to the Young Women's group (ages 12 - 18 year olds) .... they in turn are separated by three groups, from 12-13 year olds (Beehives),14-15 year olds (Mia Maids), and 16-18 year olds (Laurels).

Our YW leaders (which, I am one of them...) spoil these adorable girls when they turn 12 and give them a huge bouquet of "Beehive" stuff.  :)  They love it!



 

San Antonio Robert Burns dinner 2013

Every year the last Saturday evening of the month of January, the girls are participating in the Robert Burns dinner for the Scottish Society.  They had a great evening, and all did a fantastic job in their dances! 

Katie warms up before going on stage

 

Mom's gotta get in the pictures every once in awhile!

 



The girls with their best friends ... they started dancing a year ago with the girls

The entire dance group before the performance

Katie & Christine (on the far left) both realized they have the EXACT same tartan for their kilt!

This dance the girls learned in just two practices.  They all did amazing well for the Broadswords in such a short amount of time.  They are dancing with their teacher Miss Annette and her daughter Christine (also a teacher).

Katie & Christine both are dancing the Seann Triubhas  .... after they dance this, they have literally 5-8 minutes to change into their blue dress similar to what the other dancers are wearing

Look at those leaps!

Maddie is dancing the Lilt

Here all the dancers are dancing the Highland Fling

the last picture is of the girls & one of their current (and former) dance instructors, Mary Beth ... aka "Miss B".  She taught the girls' first dance instructor, Carla.  Miss B traveled to Kansas City to do workshops, so the girls have trained with her before.  Imagine our surprise when we found out she was moving to San Antonio.  They took up lessons with her, then Katie decided she wanted to quit.  She took a bit of time off, and is now back to dancing again and preparing for her first dance competition this April after being gone from the competition world in almost 5 years! Miss B is whipping her in shape!  The girls LOVE Miss B!

What in the world has Amy been up to?

Oh my .... it's been almost a month since I've blogged, and really, it's quite unheard of for me to not blog!!  I've been quite busy, actually. 

Yesterday I just finished coaching my last season of volleyball for Maddie's team.  While I enjoyed the run for the past 3 years, I'm ready to be done. 

I was called to serve in the Young Women's organization at church in November, so I'm getting used to being around teenaged girls now instead of little kids!!  I had to resnap pictures of Katie for a project the leaders are doing in YW at church, and while we didn't use these pictures, I sure do love them of Katie!

We finally have fall here in San Antonio!  We don't see the leaves change colors very often (probably because we lack the type of trees that turn the beautiful reds and oranges!), but I did find some beautiful colors at my last photoshoot!  I also found that our tree out front of our house turns red in the fall too!  YAY!  It's no secret that fall is my favorite time of year!

Mike started tile work in our kitchen -- hasn't finished it yet.  But, at least the bar section is 87% done ... he still needs to seal it up.  I can't believe I didn't take a final picture.  To come later!

The Young Women had their Young Women in Excellence night at church.  Each girl talked about what they worked on for their projects that year.  Katie & her BFF Madison danced the Highland Fling.  You can see Katie's profile picture on the "flame".  Her poster was also drawn by herself, and she added in words found in magazines that reflect how she sees herself.

We had our traditional Sunday dinner every first Sunday of the month -- the month of December was at our friend's Katie's home -- she is an amazing baker and this is her second year of having something for the kids to decorate and take home.  This year it was a stable!

What not to do when making yarn balls ....

Today is my baby's birthday .. she's a big ol' 11 years old now!  I'm on a roll in getting their room decorated before company comes. 

I saw this idea at a friend's house while doing their newborn shoot.  She said it was so easy, and it looked so amazing!  I thought "ooh! I could do this to Maddie's room!"  So I scoured Pinterest, blogs and figured out what formula I should use.  For example, liquid starch .. elmer's glue ... cornstarch .. and the list goes on.

Here is my list of what not to do when making yarn balls.

1)  First of all .... don't make them.  I'm not kidding.  They may look incredibly easy, but they're not.  Sure yarn is cheap, balloons are cheap, and so is glue.  Do not be swayed!  Stay away from these balls!  Go buy japanese lanterns instead!

2)  If you decide you have to make these yarn balls, then don't use just elmer's glue & water.  I tried this on my last three balls I made, and it did not work.  The first three balls I made (I ran out of mixture), I used a combination of Elmer's glue, cornstarch & water.  I think the ratio is like 4 oz glue, 1/2 c cornstarch and 1/4 c of water.  When I realized that my yarn was not hardening up like the first batch did -- I had to run out to get even MORE glue, and did my mixture and paint it on while it was wrapped around the balloon.  It did the trick, and hardened up after drying.  Also note that you'll use even more glue than you think you will use.   Stock up for this project.

3)  Two people really need to be doing this -- one to dip the yarn in the mixture and one to wrap it around the balloon.  I read somewhere someone said to place vaseline around the balloon, but I didn't do this.  If I did, maybe it would have prevented a lot of frustration after I popped the balloon.  I'll show you why in a second.... If it doesn't prevent what I'm about to show you, then I have no clue why they put vaseline around the balloons?

4)  Again, don't make these yarn balls.  They are a headache, I'll tell you!  I'm totally doing ya a favor!

5)  After you pop the balloons -- they will still stick to the yarn, and there will be lots of dried mixture that stays on the yarn.  What a pain in the butt.  I gave up after a few hours of scraping this off with a skewer -- I'm hoping no one take a close look when it's in her room.

6)  I used a punch balloon for my large pink balloon -- however, do not buy a punch balloon that has ink on it ... like a princess.  That transferred onto my yarn.  *%#)@#! 

7)  I bought two different types of yarn.  The thicker yarn was cheaper -- and it was harder to deal with and it doesn't look as nice as the thinner yard does (the pink).  So, splurge a bit more and get the thinner yarn.

ouch ... sorry for the noise in that picture!  High ISO = noise in my pictures!

8)  When hanging the yarn balls in the ceiling over your daughter's bed, don't drop a tack on her bed.  'Nuf said.  :/

and finally

9)  Are you really sure you want to make these yarn balls??

My daughter is totally worth it -- but man alive I wish I did something else!  (can you see the black ink in my large pink ball?!! FAIL!)

When it rains.... we play!

It rarely rains here in Texas.  We miss our good midwestern thunderstorms!  The rolling thunders, the lightning shows, and the smell of rain.

Here in Texas... we very very little rain.  So, when it poured buckets (and I mean bathtubs of buckets), Maddie wanted to play in the rain.  As long as there was no lightning.. I said "go for it!"

So, she and her friend had a ball playing in the rain for a good hour or so!

Here Maddie & her friend are running down the street... and towards the drainage pipes.  SCARED ME TO DEATH!  I envisioned two little girls being swept off by the water -- it was raining THAT much!

 

So after I yelled and ran after them to come back and staying in front of our yard...they pointed the finger at each other in the blame game.

 

Painting parties

Lately I've been seeing a lot of my friends going to painting parties ... where everyone paints the exact same thing, and it's fun to see how everyone's painting turns out!

Well, Maddie was invited to a birthday painting party, and this is the picture of her & her friends' creations!  Looks like so much fun!

A very late 4th of July post....

Fourth of July was so much fun this year!!  Katie was away at Girls Camp, so we were without Katie this year for the 4th.  Mike had just had his kidney blasted for the second time for stones, so he was a bit out of it .....

Our church ward had a breakfast early that morning.  So Maddie and I loaded up (after I woke up literally 5 minutes before I was supposed to be there to set up!) the SUV and headed to the place.  Since I am in the Primary Presidency, we were putting on games for the kids to play.  Here are some pictures of Maddie in the games.

We had a pinata...

and bobbed for apples!

had face painting as well...

and a children's parade was done to show off all the kids on their decorated bikes, wagons & anything else.... Maddie decorated herself... she made the tie dye shirt the week before.

Later that afternoon we went to our dear friends Sarah & Justin's house for a BBQ and fireworks.  Cale is four years old and we absolutely LOVE Cale!  He was so used to Katie and Maddie being there, he was calling Maddie "Hey Katie-N-Maddie!"  His mom and I thought it was hilarious.  She is always telling him "Katie 'n Maddie will be here soon!"

He is really into superheroes lately... and Maddie played along with him.
It was pretty windy out that afternoon, and we couldn't keep the sticks burning very well, so Sarah brought out this burner to light the fireworks... and boom!  It works!

We had a great evening watching fireworks happening all around it.  The wind picked up that night, and it was such a perfect night!